Avantgarde Jazz Festival: Ramsey Lewis & Dee Dee Bridgwater
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Regarded by many as the heir of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, jazz diva Dee Dee Bridgewater, accompanied by Grammy winner Ramsey Lewis, held a concert in the courtyard of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory, the main sponsor of the third Avantgarde Jazz Festiv
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3rd AVANTGARDE JAZZ FESTIVAL
Jazz diva and a brilliant piano player wow the audience
Regarded by many as the heir of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, jazz diva Dee Dee Bridgewater, accompanied by Grammy winner Ramsey Lewis, held a concert in the courtyard of the Rovinj Tobacco Factory, the main sponsor of the third Avantgarde Jazz Festival.
Her performance to remember came after excellent concerts by Rudresh Mahanthappa's Quartet, fantastic Amira Medunjanic and outstanding Otis Taylor Contraband. The American diva and the genius pianist, winners of three Grammys and numerous prestigious awards, promoted during the concert their first joint project – “The Soul of Jazz”, with soul songs in jazz arrangements. They opened the concert with the timeless hit “On Broadway” and conquered immediately the hearts of the audience which came to pay homage to the true jazz musician. Dee Dee Bridgewater performed in Rovinj for the first time two years ago.
The fantastic singer, who avows to have polished her musical and performance style on numerous theatre stages, started with the songs “Save your love for me“, “I can't help it”, “Night moves”, and “Maybe today”, which she devoted to everybody in the audience who had had, like her, their hearts broken. Bridgewater has for the last several years been accompanied by the pianist Edesel Gomez. The audience also enjoyed a few, mostly instrumental, jazz compositions performed by the legendary Chicago pianist Ramsey Lewis and his Quintet.
The famous vocalist has, besides performing on Broadway, also performed in theatres around the world and in plays “Sophisticated Ladies”, “Cosmopolitan Greetings”, “Black Ballad”, “Carmen Jazz” and “Cabaret”. She won both Tony and Laurence Olivier awards for the best actress. Owing to her theatre experience she became an attractive jazz singer whose concerts are considered one of the most exciting performances of the current world jazz scene.
